Apple loses Swiss smartphone users: study

Apple phones using the iOS operating system and phones using Google-backed open source Android systems each account for 45 percent of the market, according to a media use survey conducted by consultants Y&R Group Switzerland.

Last year Apple accounted for 50 percent of smartphones in the country, while phones with Android systems took a 40 percent share.

“The dominance of Apple in Switzerland is finished with the two operating systems now sharing the market equally,” Y&R said in an online report issued on Tuesday.

“Looking at global developments, this trend is likely to continue and Android will probably gain the upper hand in Switzerland.”

Blackberry phones lost their already small share (down to around one percent), while Windows phones gained slightly but remain less than 10 percent, according to the survey.

Another study by Y&R said Apple is losing much of its relevance and appreciation with the “younger generation”.

As two-year phone contracts expire a “a further push to Android is expected”.

Among other findings, the consultants say 70 percent of the Swiss population now uses smartphones to access the internet.

Tablets are used by 31 percent of the population to reach the web while conventional media use is either flat or in decline.

“The great shift from desktop to mobile has now definitely taken place,” Y&R said.


“Daily newspapers and free newspapers are increasingly read by smartphones and /or tablets.”

The consultants’ findings are based on interviews earlier this year with 2,000 people in German-speaking Switzerland.